A/N: I lied. I can't wait to put another chapter out. I'm not even going to check my email anymore; I'm just going to write. I could care less if you guys don't care what happens to Lily, but I certainly do! And I can't stop a story halfway through. So if you don't mind, I shall start Chapter 9……..

Chapter 9:

It had been a half hour since Lily and James got back from their little 'expedition' if you could call it that…..And Lily's life had already gotten worse. When they stepped through the portrait hole, Kellie Crosby sneered at them, and started mercilessly teasing Lily.

"Look who it is, everybody! Looser Lily and James Potter! Well, how much did you have to pay him to snog you Evans, either it was a whole lot of money, or Potter is definitely too desperate to be considered 'hot' or 'cool' anymore." Lily could feel her cheeks grow red, as she walked (practically ran) up to her dorm to get away from Kellie and her supporters…..well, her goons.

"That wasn't too great of an insult Kellie, I would've expected more from you. I believe you're loosing you're touch…." Gosh! Did James have to egg her on like that? It was already bad enough that Kellie was going out of her way to be rude to her; did he have to bring more attention to the situation?

"Oh yeah, well since when have you stood up for Evans, Potter? What is this, you're newfound crush or something? How can you even stand being in her presence outside of class?"

"Well maybe I enjoy friends' company who don't go off and tease other people, just to make them feel good. Lily doesn't need that type of egoistical support; she has REAL friends," James counter-attacked. Lily was desperate to get to her bed now.

"Oh yea?" Kellie got up from where she was seated next to her friends, and stood in front of James; her face inches from his, a look of murder in her eyes.

"Yeah!" James shouted at her, and turned on his heal, and skipping 3 steps at a time; made his way up to his dormitory. Lily just stood at the base of her staircase, frozen. James had stuck up for her…..well, it was for himself too; but he stuck up for her! He defended her! No one had ever done that for her. Lily felt a smile creep across her face as she felt more gratitude toward James than she had for anyone else before.

"What are you smiling at, Evans?" Kellie sneered at her. Without saying anything in return, Lily just gave Kellie the most disgusted look she could possibly manage, and stalked up the staircase to her dorm, noiseless.

It was later that night, and Lily found she couldn't sleep. She had been lying on her back, staring at the ceiling since she had tried to fall asleep; which was hours ago. She thought that at any second, the sun would start to come up. But it wouldn't; she looked at her clock which read only 1:00 in the morning, not 5:00 like she had hoped. She decided to go down to the common room, and try to read to lull herself to sleep.

She had been reading for only a half hour, yet Lily was finished with her book already. She looked around the common room, not ever really appreciating its beauty. The red and gold matched perfectly with pictures and tapestries of lions, and brave knights conquering foreign lands and defeating dragons. After a while of admiring the Gryffindor charm in the common room, Lily grew bored with this, too. She decided that she needed to talk to James, to thank him for what he had done for her only a couple of hours earlier. She was halfway up the staircase to the boy's dormitory, when she heard the door creak open. When she looked up to see who it was, the door just closed again. There was no one there. Lily felt shivers run up and down her spine.

"W-Who's there?" She asked, obviously not expecting to get an answer. And she didn't.

James couldn't sleep. He tried counting dragons, but he lost count after 100; he had tried pacing, but was scolded by a tired Remus and Sirius. He was desperate to finally get to sleep. He took out the marauder's map, and decided to see if anyone else was up in these wee hours of the morning.

"I solemnly swear that I am up to no good," He said, his wand out. After a few minutes of searching the map, he started to talk to himself again. "Lily Evans, why are you out of bed?" He got up, put on a T-shirt over his boxers, and slipped his invisibility cloak on. He crept over to the door, and opened and closed it quickly, as not to let Lily see that it was opening in the first place. But, when he turned around, Lily was only a couple of steps from him, on the boys' dormitory staircase! He almost jumped in surprise.

"W-Who's there?" She stuttered. James thought she looked so cute, standing there, frozen out of fear. He shook his head to get these thoughts out of his mind. He walked down the stairs, and slid past Lily, who felt his movement next to her. She let out a little squeak, and rushed down the stairs, almost knocking James over at the bottom. She scrambled into the armchair she had left her book in.

James walked to a shadowy corner of the common room, and discarded his cloak, leaving it on the floor.

"Scared of things that go 'bump' in the night?" He asked, causing Lily to practically jump out of her seat.

"James! Don't do that! Are you trying to scare me to death?" Lily cursed under her breath.

"Sorry! Why are you up at 1:00 in the morning, anyway?"

"I could ask you the same question," after a silent pause, both of them said,

"Couldn't sleep, you?" and laughed at the irony at them saying the same thing at the same time. James sat down on the sofa adjacent to Lily's armchair.

"Uh, James?" Lily started her 'speech' of thanks meekly.

"Yes, Lily?"

"Thanks for sticking up for me back there. I really appreciated it. No one's ever done something like that for me before," she said, blushing, and looking down at her feet.

"Well, you're welcome, because no one has ever been so nice to me without just wanting to use my friendship for they're own good," James said, a little sadly.

"Really?"

"Well, besides Remus and Sirius of course, but they're also family friends," James said with a grin at the thought of his two best friends.

"Oh," it was Lily's turn to be a little melancholy, and the memory of all the great times her and her friends had over the past six years. But she had thrown those six years down the drain, with a month or two and some really terrible 'friends' she had made.

"Lily, they'll take you back; and you know it. Everything's going to be fine," James tried to reassure her; reading her mind. Lily felt the tears start to fall, and hopped over to James's couch, resting her head on his shoulder. He took her in his arms, and continued to reassure and comfort her.

"Shhhhh…..everything's going to be just fine. Just as long as you're sincere and truthful in you're apology." After a few minutes of his comforting, Lily calmed down. She took her head off his shoulder, and smiled at him.

"Thanks," She said, simply.

"Thanks? What did I do?"

"You've been my friend even though I did some pretty terrible things. Even though I humiliated you because I told Alicia I liked you. I know that even if Liz, Beth, and Theresa won't take me back as their friend, you'll always keep me."

"You're welcome," James replied, his voice hardly above a whisper. They started to lean into each other, getting closer and closer……….

The portrait hole opened, and Lily and James never got to kiss each other. They were startled, and turned to see who had come into the common room at this hour of the night.

"Theresa! Liz! Beth!" Lily exclaimed, jumping off the couch. Then she remembered that they were mad at her.

"LILY!" All three of them exclaimed back, knocking her back onto the couch beside James, in one giant group-hug.

"We missed you so much!" Beth said, the first to speak.

"We couldn't wait to come back….."

"And see you!" Liz and Theresa finished each other's sentence.

"I….I thought you guys were….ticked at me," said Lily, her voice getting smaller and smaller as she finished the sentence.

"We got your letters, silly! And we figured something was up! We've known you for what, six years? We knew that you don't normally act like that," Theresa said. Lily smiled, and hugged them back.

"I'm so glad you guys are back." She said. Lily knew now, that she'd be finally able to fall asleep, and James too.